The Walking Egg VS Conventional In vitro Fertilization - The cost-benefit of the Walking Egg is staggering

The Walking Egg advocates for global access to infertility treatment. Availability of these treatments is a worldwide problem with developing countries being the most affected due to a lack of expertise and economic limitations. Infertile couples in these regions suffer from both psychological and financial struggles, worsen by the high cost of infertility treatments often only reimbursed (partially) in wealthy countries with functional social security systems. To develop a cost-efficient solutions for infertility treatment is of dire need and, according to our daily experience and received requests, not only in the developping world.

To offer this solution and demonstrate, not only its clinical-effectiveness, but also its cost-effectiveness, during the past few months, Thibaut Eerdekens, Britt Raskin, Jana Wils, master students from the Faculteit Bedrijfseconomische wetenschappen from the University of Hasselt, runed a detailed study on the cost-benefits of the installation of a the Walking Egg center in Belgium.

A cost-effectiveness analysis, comparing total fixed and variable costs including, equipment, maintenance, infrastructure, salary payments and training, but also costs relative to non-monetary values, like babies born, in the setting of a conventional IVF center versus a The Walking Egg center determined the actual advantage of investing in The Walking Egg Project compared to a conventional IVF center.

With no surprise and as our experience has demonstrated, investing in a the Walking Egg laboratory is by far a better investment than investing in conventional IVF laboratories. Although less people are eligible for the Walking Egg treatment than for conventional IVF, results are staggering: the net present value of investing in a the Walking Egg laboratory that runs for 10 years in a country with a 3% discount rate (compared to Belgium) results in a net-profit of 2.211.008€ while the conventional IVF laboratory only results in a net-profit of 1.764.104€. A net difference of 446.904€ putting tWE laboratories on top in a commanding fashion.